The present subject matter relates generally to a method and apparatus for detecting reporting the operation of cellular telephones within selected or predetermined areas. More particularly, the present subject matter relates to a method and apparatus for detecting the unauthorized operation of cellular telephones within security facilities including prisons and reporting such operation to selected officials.
The present subject matter is directed in one aspect, although not exclusively, towards the corrections environment. Various law enforcement entities find it desirable, even necessary (for example, such as required by law or circumstances), to monitor telephone conversations conducted by inmates in penal institutions or other detainees in similar facilities. Highly specialized telecommunications equipment and facilities must be provided to meet the various needs of governmental officials and others in addressing the desire to monitor and/or record telephone conversations under varying circumstances.
As telephone technology and, in particular, cellular technology, has become more advanced, workers in the corrections environment have found that it has become easier to hide and smuggle into corrections facilities very small cellular telephones that may be used by inmate and others to circumvent the required monitoring and/or recording operations. As a non-limiting example, the remainder of the present disclosure will refer to monitoring for cellular telephone activity within the above noted particular environment. It is to be strictly understood, however, that the present technology may be applied to and/or used within other areas where monitoring of cellular telephone activity may be of interest. For example, it may be desirable, for security or other purposes, to monitor cellular telephone activity in business or governmental environments where confidential or classified information is being discussed. Alternatively, there could be an interest in monitoring cellular telephone activity where operation of such devices is restricted or, for courtesy, deemed undesirable such as in restaurants, places of worship, theaters and similar locations. As such, it should be understood that the present technology has applicability to any situation where there is a need or desire to monitor cellular telephone activity within a prescribed area.
It has been common practice for many years in the corrections environment to record and/or monitor inmates' conversations. Such recording and monitoring takes place in the very controlled atmosphere of permitted inmate communications with individuals outside of the facilities housing prisoners or inmates. Normally prisoners are limited to a small number of individuals that they are permitted to call. These may include family members, their lawyers, and friends and may specifically exclude others, for example judges, jury members, witnesses, former co-conspirators and other like individuals to whom calls from a particular inmate may be of a harassing or other undesired nature. There may be time of day, length of call, three-way call or other restrictions on calls, all of which must be controlled by way of various instrumentalities that may include computer controlled equipment at the facility and/or at remote locations in addition to human monitoring and/or control. In almost all instances, such telephone calls must be recorded; yet even in those instances, there are conditions that may impact on the desire, ability, or legal right to record such conversations. For example, it is inappropriate to record or monitor conversations between an inmate and his/her attorney, and thus, measures must be taken to insure that, where calls are made from an inmate to his/her attorney, no recording is made or monitoring is allowed.
The particular needs described above have been addressed in the prior art, which, in major part, has provided responses to accommodate the majority of the needs addressed. Examples of such include LazerPhone™ and LazerVoice®, products provided by the assignee of the present subject matter. LazerPhone™ is a centralized, PC-based, integrated telephone system with features that provide control of inmate telecommunications activities. The system provides call blocking and monitoring, account control including personal identification number (PIN) setup and control, report generation including automated trouble reports, call activity reports and other administrative reports as well as numerous other features.
LazerVoice® is an optional feature of LazerPhone™ and provides a recording function for the LazerPhone™ system. LazerVoice® is a modular system that provides the ability to record at its installation site selected telephone conversations, permit monitoring by appropriate authorities of selected conversations, and store for later retrieval recorded conversations as well as other functions and operations involving the recording of telephone conversations. Additional information regarding these products may be found at the World Wide Web site, www.gtl.us, of the corporate owner of the present application interests.
While it is considered well known that the recording of inmate telephone conversations is advantageous to governmental agencies and appropriate authorities in that information regarding the security of facilities and general continuing or past criminal activity may be found in such recordings, advances in the cellular telephone technology have opened avenues for inmates to circumvent such monitoring and/or recording advantages. Maintaining the ability to insure control and/or monitoring of communications from or to a controlled facility is, therefore, an important aspect to previously implemented telecommunications systems. As noted, with the advances in cellular communications technology, such maintenance of capability is hindered by such issues as the clandestine delivery of prohibited equipment into a monitored facility. Due to the small size of certain of the more recently developed devices, such may avoid detection by more conventional search techniques including, but not limited to, walk through and manual metal detectors and even physical “pat-down” searches.
While various aspects and alternative features are known in the field of telecommunications and telephone conversation monitoring, no one design has emerged that generally integrates all of the ideal features and performance characteristics as discussed herein.